User equipment, electronic device, wireless communication method, and storage medium

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a user equipment, an electronic device, a wireless communication method, and a storage medium. The user equipment according to the present invention comprises a processing circuit configured to: select G transmit beam groups from K transmit beams of a network side device; and sending information about the selected G transmit beam groups to the network side device, wherein each of the G transmit beam groups comprises N transmit beams, the user equipment is capable of simultaneously receiving downlink information that the network side device sends by using the N transmit beams, and K, N, G are all integers greater than 1. The use of the user equipment, the electronic device, the wireless communication method, and the storage medium according to the present invention can improve beam selection process in a system that uses a beamforming technique.

The present application claims priority to Chinese Patent ApplicationNo. 201810819735.5, titled “USER EQUIPMENT, ELECTRONIC DEVICE, WIRELESSCOMMUNICATION METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM”, filed on Jul. 24, 2018 withthe Chinese Patent Office, which is incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field ofwireless communications, and in particular to a user equipment, anelectronic device, a wireless communication method and a computerreadable storage medium. More particularly, the present disclosurerelates to a user equipment in a wireless communication system, anelectronic device as a network side device in a wireless communicationsystem, a wireless communication method performed by a network sidedevice in a wireless communication system, a wireless communicationmethod performed by a user equipment in a wireless communication system,and a computer readable storage medium.

BACKGROUND

The beamforming technology is a signal preprocessing technology based onan antenna array. In the beamforming technology, a beam havingdirectivity is generated by adjusting a weighting coefficient of eacharray element in the antenna array, so as to acquire significant arraygain. Therefore, the beamforming technology has great advantages inexpanding coverage, improving edge throughput and suppressinginterference.

In a wireless communication system to which the beamforming technologyis applied, in the case of downlink transmission, a network side devicemay select a proper transmit beam for transmitting downlink informationfrom multiple candidate transmit beams reported by a user equipment. Inthis case, the user equipment is required to report the multiplecandidate transmit beams. Therefore, how the user equipment properlyselects and reports the candidate transmit beams and how the networkside device informs the user equipment of the transmit beam fortransmitting the downlink information are technical problems to besolved urgently.

Therefore, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a userequipment, an electronic device, a wireless communication method and acomputer readable storage medium, to solve at least one of the abovetechnical problems.

SUMMARY

The part provides a general summary of the present disclosure, ratherthan a comprehensive disclosure of a full scope or all features of thepresent disclosure.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a user equipment, anelectronic device, a wireless communication method and a computerreadable storage medium, to improve beam selection in a system to whichthe beamforming technology is applied.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a user equipment isprovided. The user equipment includes processing circuitry. Theprocessing circuitry is configured to: select G groups of transmit beamsfrom K transmit beams of a network side device; and transmit informationabout the selected G groups of transmit beams to the network sidedevice. Each of the G groups of transmit beams includes N transmitbeams. The user equipment is capable of simultaneously receivingdownlink information transmitted by the network side device using the Ntransmit beams. Each of K, N and G is an integer greater than 1.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronicdevice is provided. The electronic device includes processing circuitry.The processing circuitry is configured to: receive information about Ggroups of transmit beams from a user equipment; and select a group oftransmit beams for transmitting downlink information from the G groupsof transmit beams. Each of the G groups of transmit beams includes Ntransmit beams. The user equipment is capable of simultaneouslyreceiving downlink information transmitted by the electronic deviceusing the N transmit beams. Each of N and G is an integer greater than1.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a wirelesscommunication method performed by a user equipment is provided. Themethod includes: selecting G groups of transmit beams from K transmitbeams of a network side device and transmitting information about theselected G groups of transmit beams to the network side device. Each ofthe G groups of transmit beams includes N transmit beams. The userequipment is capable of simultaneously receiving downlink informationtransmitted by the network side device using the N transmit beams. Eachof K, N and G is an integer greater than 1.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a wirelesscommunication method performed by a network side device is provided. Themethod includes: receiving information about G groups of transmit beamsfrom a user equipment; and selecting a group of transmit beams fortransmitting downlink information from the G groups of transmit beams.Each of the G groups of transmit beams includes N transmit beams. Theuser equipment is capable of simultaneously receiving downlinkinformation transmitted by the electronic device using the N transmitbeams. Each of N and G is an integer greater than 1.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a computerreadable storage medium is provided. The computer readable storagemedium includes executable computer instructions that, when executed bya computer, cause the computer to perform the wireless communicationmethod provided in the present disclosure.

With the user equipment, the electronic device, the wirelesscommunication method and the computer readable storage medium providedin the present disclosure, the user equipment may select multiple groupsof transmit beams and transmit information about the selected multiplegroups of transmit beams to the network side device, so that the networkside device can select a group of transmit beams for transmittingdownlink information from the received multiple groups of transmitbeams. The user equipment can simultaneously receive the downlinkinformation transmitted by the network side device using multipletransmit beams included in each group of transmit beams. In this way,the user equipment can report multiple groups of transmit beams at onetime, thereby reducing signaling overhead. In addition, the network sidedevice can simultaneously transmit information to the user equipmentusing multiple transmit beams in the selected group of transmit beams,thereby improving beam selection in a system to which the beamformingtechnology is applied.

A further applicable field becomes apparent from the description herein.The description and specific examples in the summary are onlyillustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the presentdisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings described herein are used for illustrating the selectedembodiments only rather than all of possible embodiments, and are notintended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a userequipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a process of selecting a group oftransmit beams by a user equipment according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing multiple antenna panels of anetwork side device according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a process of calculating channelquality according to a time window according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of anelectronic device as a network side device according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a wireless communication method performed by auser equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a wireless communication method performed by anetwork side device according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a first example of an exemplaryconfiguration of a gNB (base station device in a 5G system);

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a second example of the exemplaryconfiguration of the gNB;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an example of an exemplaryconfiguration of a smartphone; and

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an example of an exemplaryconfiguration of a vehicle navigation device.

Although various modifications and substitutions may be made to thepresent disclosure, specific embodiments thereof are shown in thedrawings as examples and are described in detail herein. However, itshould be understood that, the description for the specific embodimentsherein is not intended to limit the present disclosure into a disclosedspecific form. Instead, the present disclosure aims to cover allmodifications, equivalents and substitutions within the spirit and thescope of the present disclosure. It should be noted that, correspondingreference numerals indicate corresponding components throughout thedrawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Examples of the present disclosure are described below more fully withreference to the drawings. The following description is merelyillustrative in nature and is not intended to limit the presentdisclosure and the application or use thereof.

Exemplary embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure canbecome exhaustive and the scope of the present disclosure can be fullyconveyed to those skilled in the art. Examples of various specificdetails such as specific components, apparatuses, and methods are setforth to provide detailed understanding of the embodiments of thepresent disclosure. It is apparent to those skilled in the art thatwithout specific details, the exemplary embodiments may be implementedin multiple different forms, none of which is construed as limiting thescope of the present disclosure. In some exemplary embodiments,well-known processes, well-known structures, and well-known technologiesare not described in detail.

The network side device according to the present disclosure may be anytype of TRP (Transmit and Receive Port). The TRP may have functions oftransmitting and receiving. For example, the TRP may receive informationfrom a user equipment and a base station device and may transmitinformation to a user equipment and a base station device. In anexample, the TRP may serve a user equipment and is controlled by a basestation device. That is, the base station device serves the userequipment via the TRP. In addition, the network side device according tothe present disclosure may also be a base station device, for example,an eNB (evolved node B) or a gNB.

The user equipment according to the present disclosure may be a mobileterminal (such as a smartphone, a tablet personal computer (PC), anotebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable/dongle mobile router,and a digital camera) or a vehicle terminal (such as a vehiclenavigation device). The user equipment may also be implemented as aterminal (also referred to as a machine type communication (MTC)terminal) that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication.Furthermore, the user equipment may be a wireless communication module(such as an integrated circuit module including a single wafer) mountedon each of the terminals described above.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a userequipment 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 1, the user equipment 100 may include a selection unit110, a configuration unit 120 and a communication unit 130.

The units of the user equipment 100 may be included in a processingcircuitry. It should be noted that the user equipment 100 may includeone processing circuitry or multiple processing circuitries. Further,the processing circuitry may include various discrete functional unitsto perform various functions and/or operations. It should be noted thatthe functional units may be physical entities or logical entities, andunits with different names may be implemented by the same physicalentity.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit110 may select G groups of transmit beams from K transmit beams of anetwork side device. Each of K and G is an integer greater than 1. Thatis, the selection unit 110 may select multiple groups of transmit beamsfrom multiple transmit beams of the network side device.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the K transmitbeams may be all transmit beams of the network side device. For example,in a case that the network side device has one antenna panel, the Ktransmit beams may be all transmit beams emitted by the antenna panel.In a case that the network side device has multiple antenna panels, theK transmit beams may be all transmit beams emitted by the multipleantenna panels. The user equipment 100 may know information about the Ktransmit beams in advance. For example, the user equipment 100 mayacquire the information about the K transmit beams from the network sidedevice by high layer signaling in advance, so that the selection unit110 may select G groups of transmit beams from the K transmit beams.

Preferably, K may be greater than or equal to G. More preferably, K maybe equal to 2^(k), and G may be equal to 2 g, where each of k and g is apositive integer. For example, K may be equal to 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64,and G may be equal to 2 or 4.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, each of the Ggroups of transmit beams selected by the selection unit 110 includes Ntransmit beams, and the user equipment 100 is capable of simultaneouslyreceiving downlink information transmitted by the network side deviceusing the N transmit beams. That is, in a case that the network sidedevice simultaneously transmits downlink information to the userequipment 100 using N transmit beams in one group of transmit beams, theuser equipment can receive the downlink information that is transmittedsimultaneously. N may be an integer greater than or equal to 1. That is,each group of transmit beams may include one or more transmit beams.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the network sidedevice may configure values of G and N for the user equipment 100. Forexample, the network side device may configure values of G and/or N forthe user equipment 100 by high layer signaling including but not limitedto RRC signaling. In addition, the network side device may dynamicallychange the values of G and/or N configured for the user equipment 100 bylow layer signaling including but not limited to DCI information.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the configurationunit 120 may configure information about the selected G groups oftransmit beams.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the communicationunit 130 may transmit the information about the selected G groups oftransmit beams to the network side device.

It can be seen from the above that, the user equipment 100 according tothe embodiment of the present disclosure may select multiple groups oftransmit beams from transmit beams of the network side device andtransmit information about the multiple groups of transmit beams to thenetwork side device. In this way, the multiple groups of transmit beamscan be reported at one time, thereby reducing signaling overhead andimproving beam selection in a system to which the beamforming technologyis applied.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit110 may select the G groups of transmit beams according to C sets oftransmit beams of the network side device so that each group of transmitbeams includes N transmit beams which are respectively from N sets oftransmit beams. C is an integer greater than or equal to N.

The user equipment 100 may know information about K transmit beams inthe C sets of transmit beams of the network side device in advance. Forexample, the user equipment 100 may acquire the information about the Ktransmit beams in the C sets of transmit beams from the network sidedevice by high layer signaling in advance, including but not limited toidentification information of a set of transmit beams where eachtransmit beam lies, and identification information of the transmit beamin the set of transmit beams. Next, the selection unit 110 may selectthe G groups of transmit beams from the K transmit beams in the C setsof transmit beams.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a process of selecting a group oftransmit beams by a user equipment according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

In FIG. 2, a gNB may serve as a network side device, and a UE may serveas the user equipment 100. As shown in FIG. 2, the gNB has 4 sets oftransmit beams, that is, C is equal to 4. Each set of transmit beamsincludes 8 transmit beams. The gNB has 32 transmit beams in total. Thatis, K is equal to 32. It is assumed that N is equal to 2, that is, eachof G groups of transmit beams selected by the UE includes 2 transmitbeams. As shown in FIG. 2, the UE selects a transmit beam 5 in a set 2of transmit beams and a transmit beam 4 in a set 3 of transmit beams. Itcan be seen that, two transmit beams selected by the UE are respectivelyfrom different sets of transmit beams. FIG. 2 only shows that the UEselects one group of transmit beams. The UE may select each of the Ggroups of transmit beams in the above manner so that each group oftransmit beams includes two transmit beams respectively from two sets oftransmit beams.

FIG. 2 illustrates a transmit beam, a set of transmit beams and a groupof transmit beams in the case of C=4, K=32 and N=2, which is not limitedin the present disclosure. In addition, in FIG. 2, each of the 4 sets oftransmit beams includes 8 transmit beams. However, the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto. That is, different sets of transmitbeams may include different numbers of transmit beams.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, each of the C setsof transmit beams of the network side device may include all transmitbeams emitted by one or more antenna panels of the network side device.That is, C is equal to or less than the number of the antenna panels ofthe network side device.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, one set oftransmit beams of the network side device may correspond to one antennapanel of the network side device, or may correspond to multiple antennapanels of the network side device. In a case that each set of transmitbeams of the network side device corresponds to one antenna panel of thenetwork side device, C is equal to the number of antenna panels of thenetwork side device. Taking an example shown in FIG. 2 as an example,the gNB may have 4 antenna panels. Each of a set 1 of transmit beams,the set 2 of transmit beams, the set 3 of transmit beams, and a set 4 oftransmit beams corresponds to one of the four antenna panels. Forexample, 8 transmit beams in the set 1 of transmit beams are emitted bya first antenna panel, 8 transmit beams in the set 2 of transmit beamsare emitted by a second antenna panel, 8 transmit beams in the set 3 oftransmit beams are emitted by a third antenna panel, and 8 transmitbeams in the set 4 of transmit beams are emitted by a fourth antennapanel. Further, one set of transmit beams may correspond to multipleantenna panels. In this case, C is less than the number of antennapanels of the network side device. Still taking the example shown inFIG. 2 as an example, the gNB may have 5 antenna panels. The set 1 oftransmit beams may correspond to a first antenna panel. The set 2 oftransmit beams may correspond to a second antenna panel. The set 3 oftransmit beams may correspond to a third antenna panel. The set 4 oftransmit beams may correspond to a fourth antenna panel and a fifthantenna panel. That is, the 8 transmit beams in the set 4 of transmitbeams are composed of all transmit beams emitted by the fourth antennapanel and all transmit beams emitted by the fifth antenna panel.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing multiple antenna panels of anetwork side device according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. Two antenna panels of a gNB are shown in FIG. 3. Each crossmark in each antenna panel indicates one transmit beam. As shown in FIG.3, an antenna panel 1 has 8 transmit beams, and an antenna panel 2 has 8transmit beams.

As shown in FIG. 3, the network side device may have one or more antennapanels and each antenna panel may have multiple transmit beams. At thesame time, each antenna panel can transmit downlink information usingonly one transmit beam. That is, at the same time, each of differentantenna panels may transmit downlink information using respective onetransmit beam. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, Ntransmit beams included in each group of transmit beams selected by theselection unit 110 are respectively from N sets of transmit beams andeach set of transmit beams includes all transmit beams emitted by one ormore antenna panels. In can be seen that, the N transmit beams includedin each group of transmit beams are respectively from N antenna panels.The N antenna panels may be all or part of antenna panels of the networkside device. In this way, the network side device can simultaneouslytransmit downlink information using N transmit beams in the same groupof transmit beams, and the user equipment can simultaneously receive theinformation, thereby improving beam selection using the beamformingtechnology, and thus increasing transmission efficiency of downlinkinformation.

How the selection unit 110 selects the G groups of transmit beams from Ktransmit beams in the C sets of transmit beams of the network sidedevice is described in detail below. Each group of transmit beamsincludes N transmit beams.

As shown in FIG. 1, the user equipment 100 may further include adetection unit 140. The detection unit 140 is configured to detectchannel quality between the network side device and the user equipment100. Specifically, the detection unit 140 may detect channel qualitybetween any one transmit beam of the network side device and the userequipment 100. In the present disclosure, the channel quality may berepresented by various parameters including but not limited to RSRP(Reference Signal Receiving Power), RSRQ (Reference Signal ReceivingQuality), SINR (Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio) and the like.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the detection unit140 may detect channel quality between each of the K transmit beams ofthe network side device and the user equipment 100. The selection unit110 may select the G groups of transmit beams according to the channelquality between the K transmit beams of the network side device and theuser equipment 100.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the channelquality may be represented by an instantaneous value of the channelquality or a mean value of the channel quality within a predeterminedperiod of time. For example, a time window may be defined. A length ofthe time window in time is the predetermined period of time. For anytransmit beam, the detection unit 140 may detect a mean value of channelquality between the transmit beam and the user equipment 100 within thetime window. The mean value is used to represent the channel qualitybetween the transmit beam and the user equipment 100. Within thepredetermined period of time, i.e., within the time window, since theuser equipment 100 may scan one transmit beam one or more times, thechannel quality between the transmit beam and the user equipment 100 maybe detected one or more times. Therefore, according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure, for any transmit beam, a mean value of channelquality represents an average value obtained after detecting channelquality of the transmit beam one or more times.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a process of calculating channelquality according to a time window according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. In FIG. 4, a length of the time window, i.e., alength of a predetermined period of time, is indicated by τ, where tindicates a time instant in a time axis. The time instant may be a starttime instant of the time window defined by the detection unit 140. Abeam with a reference number 4 in the time window represents the transitbeam 4 in the set 3 of transmit beams shown in FIG. 2. A beam with areference number 5 represents the transit beam 5 in the set 2 oftransmit beams shown in FIG. 2. A beam with a reference number 5′represents that, scanning and channel detection are again performed onthe transit beam 5 in the set 2 of transmit beams shown in FIG. 2 withinthe time window. That is, the beam with the reference number 5 and thebeam with the reference number 5′ are obtained by scanning the sametransmit beam for two times. Different reference numbers are used inorder to distinguish. According to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure, since the transit beam 4 in the set 3 of transmit beams isscanned for one time within the time window shown in FIG. 4, a currentmeasurement result may be directly determined as a channel detectionresult for the transit beam 4 in the set 3 of transmit beams. Inaddition, since the transit beam 5 in the set 2 of transmit beams isscanned for two times within the time window shown in FIG. 4, a meanvalue of two measurement results may be determined as a channeldetection result for the transit beam 5 in the set 2 of transmit beams.It should be noted that, FIG. 4 only shows the case of two beams forconvenience of illustration. In fact, the detection unit 140 maydetermine channel quality of each of the K transmit beams in a similarmanner.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit110 may determine all groups of transmit beams according to the C setsof transmit beams of the network side device, determine average channelquality of each group of transmit beams according to channel qualitybetween the N transmit beams included in each group of transmit beamsand the user equipment 100, and select the G groups of transmit beamsaccording to the average channel quality of each group of transmitbeams.

As described above, the selection unit 110 may select the G groups oftransmit beams according to the C sets of transmit beams of the networkside device so that each group of transmit beams includes N transmitbeams which are respectively from N sets of transmit beams. According toan embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit 110 maydetermine all possible groups of transmit beams according to the C setsof transmit beams. Each possible group of transmit beams includes Ntransmit beams which are respectively from N sets of transmit beams.That is, the selection unit 110 may enumerate all groups of transmitbeams meeting the following condition that the group of transmit beamsincludes N transmit beams which are respectively from N sets of transmitbeams.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit110 may further determine average channel quality of each group oftransmit beams according to channel quality between the N transmit beamsincluded in each possible group of transmit beams determined above andthe user equipment 100. For example, the selection unit may determine anarithmetical average of channel quality between the N transmit beams andthe user equipment 100 as average channel quality of the group oftransmit beams. Apparently, other methods for calculating an averagevalue may also be used, which is not limited in the present disclosure.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit110 may select the G groups of transmit beams according to the averagechannel quality of each group of transmit beams. For example, theselection unit 110 may select the top G groups of transmit beams havingthe best average channel quality from all the possible groups oftransmit beams as G final groups of transmit beams.

The process of selecting a group of transmit beams according to thechannel quality is described below in the case of C=2, K=8, N=2 and G=4by way of example. Table 1 shows a value of channel quality of each of Ktransmit beams. In Table 1, each set of transmit beams includes 4transmit beams. In this case, a serial number of each set of transmitbeams is taken from [1, 2], and a serial number of each transmit beam istaken from [1, 2, 3, 4]. In addition, in Table 1, the channel quality isrepresent by RSRQ by way of example, and 8 transmit beams are rankedaccording to a value of the RSRQ.

TABLE 1 Serial Number of set of Serial Number of Transmit Beams TransmitBeam RSRQ (dB) 1 2 −4.5 1 3 −5.8 2 2 −6 1 1 −6.2 2 1 −6.9 2 3 −8.3 1 4−10.7 2 4 −11.1

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit110 may determine all possible groups of transmit beams. For example, inthe case of C=2, K=8 and N=2, if each group of transmit beams includes 4transmit beams, 16 possible groups of transmit beams may be determined,as shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 Serial Number of Group of Transmit Beams Transmit Beam 1 1, 1;2, 1 2 1, 1; 2, 2 3 1, 1; 2, 3 4 1, 1; 2, 4 5 1, 2; 2, 1 6 1, 2; 2, 2 71, 2; 2, 3 8 1, 2; 2, 4 9 1, 3; 2, 1 10 1, 3; 2, 2 11 1, 3; 2, 3 12 1,3; 2, 4 13 1, 4; 2, 1 14 1, 4; 2, 2 15 1, 4; 2, 3 16 1, 4; 2, 4

In the column of Transmit Beam in Table 2, a semicolon is used as aseparator to show two transmit beams included in each group of transmitbeams. In each transmit beam, a comma is used as a separator to show aserial number of a set of transmit beams where the transmit beam liesand a serial number of the transmit beam in the set of transmit beams.For example, a group of transmit beams having a serial number 1 includestwo transmit beams. A serial number of a set of transmit beams where oneof the two transmit beams lies is 1, and a serial number of the transmitbeam is 1. A serial number of a set of transmit beams where the other ofthe two transmit beams lies is 2, and a serial number of the transmitbeam is 1. That is, the group of transmit beams having the serial number1 includes a transmit beam 1 in a set 1 of transmit beams and a transmitbeam 1 in a set 2 of transmit beams.

Next, the selection unit 110 may determine average channel quality ofeach of the 16 groups of transmit beams in Table 2. For example, averagechannel quality of the group of transmit beams having the serial number1 may be determined according to a mean value of channel quality of thetransmit beam 1 in the set 1 of transmit beams and channel quality ofthe transmit beam 1 in the set 2 of transmit beams.

Next, the selection unit 110 may select the top 4 groups of transmitbeams having the best average channel quality from the 16 groups oftransmit beams as 4 final groups of transmit beams. Table 3 showsaverage channel quality of each of the selected 4 groups of transmitbeams.

TABLE 3 Serial Number of Group of Transmit Beams Transmit Beam AverageRSRQ (dB) 6 1, 2; 2, 2 −5.18 5 1, 2; 2, 1 −5.53 10 1, 3; 2, 2 −5.92 9 1,3; 2, 1 −6.34

In the above example, the selection unit 110 may select the G groups oftransmit beams according to the value of the RSRQ. That is, theselection unit 110 selects the G groups of transmit beams according toonly one parameter representing the channel quality. According to anembodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit 110 may selectthe G groups of transmit beams further according to multiple parametersrepresenting the channel quality.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit110 may determine all possible groups of transmit beams from multipletransmit beams of which the channel quality represented by a firstparameter meets a predetermined condition, and then determine averagechannel quality of each possible group of transmit beams. The averagechannel quality is represented by a second parameter representing thechannel quality. Next, the selection unit 110 may select the top Ggroups of transmit beams having the best average channel quality.According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the firstparameter and the second parameter may be different from each other,each of which may be RSRP, RSRQ, SINR and the like.

That is, the selection unit 110 may perform first selection according tothe first parameter and perform second selection according to the secondparameter. For example, the selection unit 110 may select multipletransmit beams whose first parameter (for example, the RSRP) meet apredetermined threshold condition, and determine all possible groups oftransmit beams from the multiple transmit beams, so as to select the topG groups of transmit beams having the best second parameter (forexample, average RSRQ).

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the user equipment100 may determine a group of transmit beams that is required to bereported according to one or more parameters representing the channelquality so that the selected group of transmit beams has good channelquality.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, after theselection unit 110 selects the G groups of transmit beams, theconfiguration unit 120 may configure information about the selected Ggroups of transmit beams and report the information about the selected Ggroups of transmit beams to the network side device via thecommunication unit 130.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the configurationunit 120 may configure the information about the selected G groups oftransmit beams to make the information about the selected G groups oftransmit beams include identification information of the N transmitbeams included in each of the G groups of transmit beams. Further,identification information of each transmit beam may include:identification information of a set of transmit beams where the transmitbeam lies, and identification information of the transmit beam in theset of transmit beams.

Table 4 shows an example of the information about the selected G groupsof transmit beams, where G=4 and N=2. As shown in Table 4, theinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams includesidentification information of 2 transmit beams included in each of 4groups of transmit beams. Identification information of each transmitbeam includes identification information of a set of transmit beams andidentification information of the transmit beam in the set of transmitbeams.

TABLE 4 Transmit Beam 1, 2; 2, 2 1, 2; 2, 1 1, 3; 2, 2 1, 3; 2, 1

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the configurationunit 120 may further configure the information about the selected Ggroups of transmit beams to make the information about the selected Ggroups of transmit beams include channel quality information of all ofthe G groups of transmit beams. In addition, the channel qualityinformation of each group of transmit beams includes: channel quality ofeach of the N transmit beams included in the group of transmit beams, oraverage channel quality of the group of transmit beams. Table 5 andTable 6 respectively show the information about the selected G groups oftransmit beams in the case of the channel quality information of eachgroup of transmit beams including channel quality of each of the Ntransmit beams included in the group of transmit beams or includingaverage channel quality of the group of transmit beams where G=4 andN=2. In addition, the channel quality is represented by the RSRQ.

TABLE 5 Transmit Beam Average RSRQ (dB) 1, 2; 2, 2 −5.18 1, 2; 2, 1−5.53 1, 3; 2, 2 −5.92 1, 3; 2, 1 −6.34

As shown in Table 5, in addition to identification information of 2transmit beams included in each of 4 groups of transmit beams, theinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams furtherincludes average channel quality of each group of transmit beams.

TABLE 6 Transmit Beam Average RSRQ (dB) 1, 2; 2, 2 −4.5; −6  1, 2; 2, 1−4.5; −6.9 1, 3; 2, 2 −5.8; −6  1, 3; 2, 1 −5.8; −6.9

As shown in Table 6, in addition to identification information of 2transmit beams included in each of 4 groups of transmit beams, theinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams furtherincludes channel quality of each of the 2 transmit beams included ineach group of transmit beams.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the configurationunit 120 may further configure the information about the selected Ggroups of transmit beams to make the information about the selected Ggroups of transmit beams include channel quality information of part ofthe G groups of transmit beams. For example, the part of the G groups oftransmit beams may include a group of transmit beams having the bestaverage channel quality and a group of transmit beams having the worstaverage channel quality among the G groups of transmit beams.

Similarly, channel quality information of each of the part of the Ggroups of transmit beams may include: channel quality of each of the Ntransmit beams included in the group of transmit beams, or averagechannel quality of the group of transmit beams. Table 7 and Table 8respectively show the information about the selected G groups oftransmit beams respectively in the case of the channel qualityinformation of each of the part of the G groups of transmit beamsincluding channel quality of each of the N transmit beams included inthe group of transmit beams or including average channel quality of thegroup of transmit beams, where G=4 and N=2. In addition, the channelquality is represented by the RSRQ.

TABLE 7 Transmit Beam Average RSRQ (dB) 1, 2; 2, 2 −5.18 1, 2; 2, 1 1,3; 2, 2 1, 3; 2, 1 −6.34

As shown in Table 7, in addition to identification information of 2transmit beams included in each of 4 groups of transmit beams, theinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams furtherincludes average channel quality of a group of transmit beams having thebest average channel quality among the 4 groups of transmit beams andaverage channel quality of a group of transmit beams having the worstaverage channel quality among the 4 groups of transmit beams.

TABLE 8 Transmit Beam Average RSRQ (dB) 1, 2; 2, 2 −4.5; −6  1, 2; 2, 11, 3; 2, 2 1, 3; 2, 1 −5.8; −6.9

As shown in Table 8, in addition to identification information of 2transmit beams included in each of 4 groups of transmit beams, theinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams furtherincludes channel quality of each transmit beam in a group of transmitbeams having the best average channel quality among the 4 groups oftransmit beams and channel quality of each transmit beam in a group oftransmit beams having the worst average channel quality among the 4groups of transmit beams.

As described above, Table 4 to Table 8 show five examples of theinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams. According toan embodiment of the present disclosure, the user equipment 100 mayfurther receive information about the five reporting manners from thenetwork side device. That is, the network side device may configure areporting manner for the user equipment 100. Further, the user equipment100 may further report a desired reporting manner to the network sidedevice, so that the network side device may further configure areporting manner according to the reporting of the user equipment 100.In addition, a default reporting manner may be agreed by the userequipment 100 and the network side device, so that the user equipment100 performs the reporting in the default reporting manner in the caseof not receiving the configured reporting manner from the network sidedevice.

As described above, the information about the selected G groups oftransmit beams may include the identification information of the Ntransmit beams included in each of the G groups of transmit beams, andmay further include the channel quality information of all or part ofthe G groups of transmit beams. The network side device may configurethe reporting manner for the user equipment according to actualconditions, so as to clearly represent channel quality of each transmitbeam on a basis of saving signaling overhead.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the informationabout the selected G groups of transmit beams may further include orderinformation of the G groups of transmit beams. The order information maybe determined according to the average channel quality of the G groupsof transmit beams. That is, the user equipment 100 may successivelyreport the information about the selected G groups of transmit beams tothe network side device in a descending order of excellence in theaverage channel quality. That is, in each of examples shown in Table 4to Table 8, the order of the transmit beams listed in the table may be areporting order.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure,identification of a transmit beam may be represented by identificationof a CSI-RS (Channel State Information-Reference Signal) resource oridentification of an SSB (Synchronization Signal Block) resource. Thisis because that, for different transmit beams, the CSI-RS is transmittedusing different resources. That is, transmit beams are in one-to-onecorrespondence with CSI-RS resources. In this case, the identificationof the transmit beam may be represented by the identification of theCSI-RS resource. Similar to the case of transmitting the CSI-RS, fordifferent beams, the SSB is transmitted using different resources. Thatis, transmit beams are in one-to-one correspondence with SSB resources.In this case, the identification of the transmit beam may be representedby the identification of the SSB resource. Similarly, identification ofa set of transmit beams may be represented by identification of a set ofCSI-RS resources or identification of a set of SSB resources.

Further, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, thereported channel quality may be an absolute value of the channel qualityor a relative value of the channel quality. For example, the userequipment 100 may only report an absolute value of channel quality ofone transmit beam (reference transmit beam) or an absolute value ofaverage channel quality of one group of transmit beams (reference groupof transmit beams). For channel quality of other transmit beams oraverage channel quality of other groups of transmit beams, the userequipment 100 may only report a relative value relative to the referencetransmit beam or the reference group of transmit beams. In this way,signaling overhead can be further saved.

As described above, the configuration unit 120 may configure theinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams. theinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams may betransmitted to the network side device via the communication unit 130.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the user equipment100 may carry the information about the selected G groups of transmitbeams by using one CSI (Channel State Information) report. That is, theuser equipment 100 may report the information about the selected Ggroups of transmit beams at one time (i.e., simultaneously).

Table 9 shows an example of the CSI report. In Table 9, the case of N=2and G=2 is shown.

TABLE 9 Serial Number of CSI Report CSI Content n Identification #1 of aset of CSI-RS resources or a set of SSB resources, identification #1 ofa CSI-RS resource or an SSB resource Identification #2 of a set ofCSI-RS resources or a set of SSB resources, identification #2 of aCSI-RS resource or an SSB resource Identification #3 of a set of CSI-RSresources or a set of SSB resources, identification #3 of a CSI-RSresource or an SSB resource Identification #4 of a set of CSI-RSresources or a set of SSB resources, identification #4 of a CSI-RSresource or an SSB resource Channel quality #1 (if required to bereported) Channel quality #2 (if required to be reported) Channelquality #3 (if required to be reported) Channel quality #4 (if requiredto be reported)

As shown in Table 9, n represents a serial number of the CSI report. Thecontent of the CSI report may include identification information of 4transmit beams in 2 groups of transmit beams. A transmit beamrepresented by Identification #1 of a set of CSI-RS resources or a setof SSB resources, identification #1 of a CSI-RS resource or an SSBresource and a transmit beam represented by Identification #2 of a setof CSI-RS resources or a set of SSB resources, identification #2 of aCSI-RS resource or an SSB resource and a transmit beam represented byare in one group of transmit beams. A transmit beam represented byIdentification #3 of a set of CSI-RS resources or a set of SSBresources, identification #3 of a CSI-RS resource or an SSB resource anda transmit beam represented by Identification #4 of a set of CSI-RSresources or a set of SSB resources, identification #4 of a CSI-RSresource or an SSB resource and a transmit beam represented by are inthe other group of transmit beams. In addition, the content of the CSIreport may further include channel quality information of all or part ofthe 4 transmit beams if required.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a serial number ofa group of transmit beams may not be reported. This is because thatidentification information of all transmit beams included in the Ggroups of transmit beams is successively reported in the CSI report inan order. That is, in the example shown in Table 9, the first twotransmit beams are in the one group of transmit beams, and the last twotransmit beams are in the other group of transmit beams. Further, thenetwork side device may configure values of G and N. That is, thenetwork side device knows the values of G and N. Therefore, the networkside device may determine transmit beams included in each group oftransmit beams according to the content of the CSI report. In this way,overhead of the CSI report can be further saved. In addition, Table 9only shows an example in which the CSI report includes channel qualityinformation of transmit beams included in the reported group of transmitbeams. As described above, the CSI report may include average channelquality information of the group of transmit beams.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, after reportingthe information about the selected G groups of transmit beams to thenetwork side device, the user equipment 100 may receive controlinformation from the network side device via the communication unit 130.

As shown in FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the user equipment 100 may further include a determinationunit 150 configured to determine, according to the received controlinformation, a group of transmit beams or a transmit beam fortransmitting downlink information selected by the network side device.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, after the userequipment 100 reports the information about the G groups of transmitbeams, the network side device may select a group of transmit beams fromthe G groups of transmit beams, to simultaneously transmit downlinkinformation using multiple transmit beams in the group of transmitbeams. Further, the network side device may further select a transmitbeam in a group of transmit beams from the G groups of transmit beams,to transmit downlink information only using the transmit beam.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, downlinkinformation transmitted by the network side device using a transmit beamor a group of transmit beams may include downlink control information ordownlink data information. The following description is givenrespectively for the downlink control information and the downlink datainformation.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the communicationunit 130 may receive the control information by DCI (Downlink ControlInformation). The determination unit 150 may demodulate from the DCI, agroup of transmit beams or a transmit beam for transmitting downlinkdata information selected by the network side device. That is, thedetermination unit 150 may determine a group of transmit beams or atransmit beam carrying a PDSCH channel according to the DCI.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the communicationunit 130 may further receive the control information by MAC (mediumaccess control) layer signaling including but not limited to an MAC CE(Control Element). The determination unit 150 may demodulate from theMAC CE, a group of transmit beams or a transmit beam for transmittingdownlink control information selected by the network side device. Thatis, the determination unit 150 may determine a group of transmit beamsor a transmit beam carrying a PDCCH channel according to the MAC CE.

A case that the network side device selects a transmit beam and a casethat the network side device selects a group of transmit beams arerespectively described below.

In the case that the network side device selects a group of transmitbeams, the determination unit 150 may demodulate from the DCI,identification (i.e., a serial number) of a group of transmit beams fortransmitting downlink data information. Further, the determination unit150 may demodulate from the MAC CE, identification (i.e., a serialnumber) of a group of transmit beams for transmitting downlink controlinformation. That is, the serial number of the group of transmit beamsfor transmitting the downlink data information is carried in the DCI,and the serial number of the group of transmit beams for transmittingthe downlink control information is carried in the MAC CE.

As described above, the information about the G groups of transmit beamsmay not include serial number information of the groups of transmitbeams. When demodulating a serial number of a group of transmit beams,the determination unit 150 may determine which group of transmit beamsis selected by the network side device according to an order in whichthe G groups of transmit beams are reported. For example, in the exampleshown in Table 9, when demodulating a serial number of a group oftransmit beams is 1, the determination unit 150 may determine that thenetwork side device selects a group of transmit beams including thefollowing transmit beams: the transmit beam represented byIdentification #1 of a set of CSI-RS resources or a set of SSBresources, identification #1 of a CSI-RS resource or an SSB resource;and the transmit beam represented by Identification #2 of a set ofCSI-RS resources or a set of SSB resources, identification #2 of aCSI-RS resource or an SSB resource. When demodulating a serial number ofa group of transmit beams is 2, the determination unit 150 may determinethat the network side device selects a group of transmit beams includingthe following transmit beams: the transmit beam represented byIdentification #3 of a set of CSI-RS resources or a set of SSBresources, identification #3 of a CSI-RS resource or an SSB resource;and the transmit beam represented by Identification #4 of a set ofCSI-RS resources or a set of SSB resources, identification #4 of aCSI-RS resource or an SSB resource.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, after thedetermination unit 150 determines the group of transmit beams fortransmitting the downlink control information or the downlink datainformation by the network side device, a corresponding receiving beammay be used to receive the downlink control information or the downlinkdata information.

In the case that the network side device selects a transmit beam, thedetermination unit 150 may demodulate TCI (Transmission ConfigurationIndication) state information from the DCI or the MAC CE, and determinea transmit beam for transmitting downlink data information or downlinkcontrol information according to the TCI state information.Specifically, the determination unit 150 may demodulate the TCI stateinformation from the DCI, and extract identification information of atransmit beam for transmitting downlink data information from the TCIstate information. The identification information of the transmit beamfor transmitting the downlink data information includes: identificationof a set of transmit beams where the transmit beam lies, such asidentification of a set of CSI-RS resources or identification of a setof SSB resources, and identification of the transmit beam in the set oftransmit beams, such as identification of a CSI-RS resource oridentification of an SSB resource. The determination unit 150 maydemodulate the TCI state information from the MAC CE, and extractidentification information of a transmit beam for transmitting downlinkcontrol information from the TCI state information. The identificationinformation of the transmit beam for transmitting the downlink controlinformation includes: identification of a set of transmit beams wherethe transmit beam lies, such as identification of a set of CSI-RSresources or identification of a set of SSB resources, andidentification of the transmit beam in the set of transmit beams, suchas identification of a CSI-RS resource or identification of an SSBresource.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, after thedetermination unit 150 determines the transmit beam for transmitting thedownlink control information or the downlink data information by thenetwork side device, a corresponding receiving beam may be used toreceive the downlink control information or the downlink datainformation.

It can be seen that, the user equipment 100 according to the embodimentof the present disclosure may select multiple groups of transmit beamsfrom transmit beams of the network side device and transmit informationabout the multiple groups of transmit beams to the network side device.In this way, the multiple groups of transmit beams can be reported atone time, thereby reducing signaling overhead. Further, in the processof selecting a transmit beam by the user equipment 100, one or moreparameters representing the channel quality may be used so that theselected group of transmit beams has good channel quality. In summary,with the user equipment 100 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the beam selection in a system to which the beamformingtechnology is applied can be improved.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a structure of an electronic device500 as a network side device in a wireless communication systemaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG.5, the electronic device 500 may include a selection unit 510 and acommunication unit 520.

The units of the electronic device 500 may be included in a processingcircuitry. It should be noted that the electronic device 500 may includeone processing circuitry or multiple processing circuitries. Further,the processing circuitry may include various discrete functional unitsto perform various functions and/or operations. It should be noted thatthe functional units may be physical entities or logical entities, andunits with different names may be implemented by the same physicalentity.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the communicationunit 520 may receive information about G groups of transmit beams from auser equipment.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit150 may select a group of transmit beams or a transmit beam fortransmitting downlink information from the G groups of transmit beams.

Each of the G groups of transmit beams includes N transmit beams. Theuser equipment can simultaneously receive downlink informationtransmitted by the electronic device 500 using the N transmit beams.Each of N and G is an integer greater than 1.

It can be seen from the above that, the electronic device 500 accordingto the embodiment of the present disclosure may select a group oftransmit beams or a transmit beam based on information about multiplegroups of transmit beams transmitted by the user equipment, so that theselected group of transmit beams is proper, thereby improving beamselection in a system to which the beamforming technology is applied.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electronicdevice 500 may configure values of G and N for the user equipment. Forexample, the network side device may configure values of G and/or N forthe user equipment 100 by high layer signaling including but not limitedto RRC signaling. In addition, the electronic device 500 may dynamicallychange the values of G and/or N configured for the user equipment by lowlayer signaling including but not limited to DCI information.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electronicdevice 500 may further transmit information about K transmit beams and Csets of transmit beams to the user equipment, so that the user equipmentselects G groups of beam beams from the K transmit beams in the C setsof transmit beams. For example, the electronic device 500 may transmitthe information about the K transmit beams and the C sets of transmitbeams to the user equipment by high layer signaling.

As shown in FIG. 5, according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the electronic device 500 may further include a demodulationunit 530 configured to demodulate the information about the G groups oftransmit beams received from the user equipment.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the demodulationunit 530 may demodulate the information about the G groups of transmitbeams, to determine identification information of the N transmit beamsincluded in each of the G groups of transmit beams. Identificationinformation of each transmit beam may include: identificationinformation of a set of transmit beams where the transmit beam lies, andidentification information of the transmit beam in the set of transmitbeams.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the demodulationunit 530 may further demodulate the information about the G groups oftransmit beams, to determine channel quality information of all or partof the G groups of transmit beams. Channel quality information of eachof the all or part of the G groups of transmit beams may include:channel quality of each of the N transmit beams included in the group oftransmit beams, or average channel quality of the group of transmitbeams.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the demodulationunit 530 may further demodulate the information about the G groups oftransmit beams, to determine an order of the G groups of transmit beams.For example, the electronic device 500 and the user equipment may agreethat the G groups of transmit beams are ranked in a descending order ofexcellence in average channel quality of the G groups of transmit beams.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electronicdevice 500 may further configure a reporting manner for the userequipment, i.e., configure for the user equipment what information isincluded in the information about the G groups of transmit beams. Forexample, the electronic device 500 may select one reporting manner fromthe following five reporting manners: reporting identificationinformation of N transmit beams included in each of the G groups oftransmit beams; reporting the identification information of N transmitbeams included in each of the G groups of transmit beams and averagechannel quality of all of the G groups of transmit beams; reporting theidentification information of N transmit beams included in each of the Ggroups of transmit beams and channel quality of each of N transmit beamsincluded in all of the G groups of transmit beams; reporting theidentification information of N transmit beams included in each of the Ggroups of transmit beams and average channel quality of part of the Ggroups of transmit beams; and reporting the identification informationof N transmit beams included in each of the G groups of transmit beamsand channel quality of each of N transmit beams included in part of theG groups of transmit beams. Further, the electronic device 500 mayfurther receive, from the user equipment, a reporting manner desired bythe user equipment, and configure a reporting manner for the userequipment according to actual conditions.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electronicdevice 500 may receive one CSI report from the user equipment, toacquire information about G groups of transmit beams. That is, theinformation about the G groups of transmit beams is received in one CSIreport at one time (i.e., simultaneously).

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit510 may select a proper group of transmit beams or a proper transmitbeam according to information demodulated by the demodulation unit 530.That is, the selection unit 510 may select a group of transmit beams tosimultaneously transmit downlink information to the user equipment usingN transmit beams included in the group of transmit beams. Further, theselection unit 510 may also select one transmit beam in a group oftransmit beams to transmit downlink information to the user equipmentusing the transmit beam.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the selection unit510 may select a group of transmit beams having the best average channelquality or a transmit beam having the best channel quality. However, thepresent disclosure is not limited thereto. The selection unit 510 mayalso select a proper group of transmit beams or a proper transmit beamconsidering, for example, configuration information of a transmit beamin an adjacent cell.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, after selecting aproper transmit beam or a proper group of transmit beams by theselection unit 510, it is required to inform the user equipment of theselected transmit beam or the selected group of transmit beams. Theelectronic device 500 may carry information about the transmit beam orthe group of transmit beams by control information.

As shown in FIG. 5, according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the electronic device 500 may further include aconfiguration unit 540 configured to configure control information. Thecontrol information includes information about a selected group oftransmit beams or a selected transmit beam for transmitting downlinkinformation. Further, the electronic device 500 may transmit the controlinformation to the user equipment via the communication unit 520.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the downlinkinformation transmitted by the electronic device 500 using a group oftransmit beams or a transmit beam may include downlink controlinformation and downlink data information. The following description isgiven respectively for the downlink control information and the downlinkdata information.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the configurationunit 540 may carry control information by using the DCI. The controlinformation carries information about the selected group of transmitbeams or the selected transmit beam for transmitting the downlink datainformation.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the configurationunit 540 may carry the control information by MAC layer signalingincluding but not limited to an MAC CE. The control information includesinformation about the selected group of transmit beams or the selectedtransmit beam for transmitting the downlink control information.

A case that the electronic device 500 selects a transmit beam and a casethat the electronic device 500 selects a group of transmit beams arerespectively described below.

In the case that the electronic device 500 selects a group of transmitbeams, the configuration unit 540 may carry the control informationabout the selected group of transmit beams for transmitting downlinkdata information with DCI format 1_1. Specifically, the controlinformation may include identification of the selected group of transmitbeams for transmitting the downlink control information.

As described above, the information about the G groups of transmit beamsreceived by the electronic device 500 may not include serial numberinformation of the groups of transmit beams. The electronic device 500may determine a serial number (that is, identification) of a group oftransmit beams according to an order in which the G groups of transmitbeams are reported. For example, in the example shown in Table 9, in thecase of successively receiving the following transmit beams: thetransmit beam represented by Identification #1 of a set of CSI-RSresources or a set of SSB resources, identification #1 of a CSI-RSresource or an SSB resource; the transmit beam represented byIdentification #2 of a set of CSI-RS resources or a set of SSBresources, identification #2 of a CSI-RS resource or an SSB resource;the transmit beam represented by Identification #3 of a set of CSI-RSresources or a set of SSB resources, identification #3 of a CSI-RSresource or an SSB resource; and the transmit beam represented byIdentification #4 of a set of CSI-RS resources or a set of SSBresources, identification #4 of a CSI-RS resource or an SSB resource,the electronic device 500 may determine that, the first two transmitbeams are in the same group of transmit beams, and the last two transmitbeams are in the same group of transmit beams. Therefore, the electronicdevice 500 may determine that, a serial number of the group of transmitbeams consisting of the first two transmit beams is 1, and a serialnumber of the group of transmit beams consisting of the last twotransmit beams is 2. Therefore, in a case that the electronic device 500selects the group of transmit beams having the serial number 1, theserial number 1 is encoded into the control information. In a case thatthe electronic device 500 selects the group of transmit beams having theserial number 2, the serial number 2 is encoded into the controlinformation.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the DCI format 1_1may be modified to include a GBBI (Group based beam indication). TheGBBI represents a serial number of a group of transmit beams fortransmitting the downlink data information selected by the electronicdevice 500. For example, the serial number of the group of transmitbeams may be represented by a binary number, and a number of bits of thebinary number may be determined according to a value of the G. Forexample, in the case of G=4, the GBBI may be expressed by two bits. Acode of the modified DCI format 1_1 is as follow, where expressing theserial number of the group of transmit beams by two bits is merelyexemplary.

The DCI format 1_1 with CRC scrambled by C-RNTI (TS 38.212)

-   -   Carrier indicator—0 or 3 bits

. . .

Group based beam indication (GBBI)—beam group id, 2 bits.

. . .

In the case that the electronic device 500 selects a group of transmitbeams, the configuration unit 540 may carry the control informationabout the selected group of transmit beams for transmitting downlinkcontrol information using an MAC CE. Specifically, the controlinformation may include identification of the selected group of transmitbeams for transmitting the downlink control information. Similarly, theMAC CE may be modified to include a GBBI (Group based beam indication).The GBBI represents a serial number of a group of transmit beams fortransmitting the downlink control information selected by the electronicdevice 500.

In the case that the electronic device 500 selects a transmit beam, theconfiguration unit 540 may carry TCI state information using the DCI orthe MAC CE. The TCI state information includes a transmit beam fortransmitting the downlink data information or the downlink controlinformation. Specifically, the configuration unit 540 may configure theTCI state information included in the DCI to carry identificationinformation of a transmit beam for transmitting downlink datainformation. The identification information of the transmit beam fortransmitting the downlink data information includes: identification of aset of transmit beams where the transmit beam lies, such asidentification of a set of CSI-RS resources or identification of a setof SSB resources, and identification of the transmit beam in the set oftransmit beams, such as identification of a CSI-RS resource oridentification of an SSB resource. Further, the configuration unit 540may configure the TCI state information included in the MAC CE to carryidentification information of a transmit beam for transmitting downlinkcontrol information. The identification information of the transmit beamfor transmitting the downlink control information includes:identification of a set of transmit beams where the transmit beam lies,such as identification of a set of CSI-RS resources or identification ofa set of SSB resources, and identification of the transmit beam in theset of transmit beams, such as identification of a CSI-RS resource oridentification of an SSB resource.

A code of the modified TCI state information is as follows, whereNZP-CSI-RS-Resource-SetId represents the identification of the set oftransmit beams where the transmit beam lies, i.e., the identification ofthe set of CSI-RS resources, and NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceId represents theidentification of the transmit beam in the set of transmit beams, i.e.,the identification of the CSI-RS resource.

TCI-State ::= SEQUENCE { tci-StateId TCI-StateId, ... } QCL-Info ::=SEQUENCE { cell ServCellIndex OPTIONAL, bwp-Id BWP-Id OPTIONAL,referenceSignal CHOICE { csi-rs NZP-CSI-RS-Resource-SetId &NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceId, ssb SSB-Index,

As described above, the configuration unit 540 may carry the informationabout the selected group of transmit beams or the selected transmit beamfor transmitting the downlink information using the DCI or the MAC CE,so that the user equipment can know the group of transmit beams or thetransmit beam to be used by the network side device, so as to select aproper receiving beam.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in the case of theelectronic device 500 selecting a group of transmit beams, sincemultiple transmit beams in the group of transmit beams are emitted bydifferent antenna panels of the electronic device 500, the electronicdevice 500 may simultaneously transmit the downlink information to theuser equipment using the multiple transmit beams in the group oftransmit beams, thereby increasing transmitting efficiency.

It can be seen from the above that, the electronic device 500 accordingto the embodiment of the present disclosure may select a group oftransmit beams or a transmit beam based on information about multiplegroups of transmit beams transmitted by the user equipment, so that theselected group of transmit beams is proper. In addition, the electronicdevice 500 may further configure one of multiple reporting manners forthe user equipment. Further, the electronic device 500 maysimultaneously transmit the downlink information to the user equipmentusing multiple transmit beams in the group of transmit beams, therebyincreasing transmitting efficiency. In summary, with the electronicdevice 500 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, thebeam selection in a system to which the beamforming technology isapplied can be improved.

The electronic device 500 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure may serve as the network side device. That is, the electronicdevice 500 may serve the user equipment 100. Therefore, all embodimentsof the user equipment 100 described above are applicable here.

A wireless communication method performed by the user equipment 100 in awireless communication system according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure is described in detail below.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the wireless communication method performed bythe user equipment 100 in a wireless communication system according tothe embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 6, in step S610, G groups of transmit beams areselected from K transmit beams of a network side device.

Next, in step S620, information about the selected G groups of transmitbeams is transmitted to the network side device.

Each of the G groups of transmit beams includes N transmit beams. Theuser equipment is capable of simultaneously receiving downlinkinformation transmitted by the network side device using the N transmitbeams. Each of K, N and G is an integer greater than 1.

Preferably, the selecting G groups of transmit beams includes: selectingthe G groups of transmit beams according to C sets of transmit beams ofthe network side device so that each group of transmit beams includes Ntransmit beams which are respectively from N sets of transmit beams. Cis an integer greater than or equal to N.

Preferably, each of the C sets of transmit beams includes all transmitbeams emitted by one or more antenna panels of the network side device.

Preferably, the selecting G groups of transmit beams includes: selectingthe G groups of transmit beams according to channel quality between theK transmit beams of the network side device and the user equipment.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes:determining, according to a mean value of channel quality between eachtransmit beam and the user equipment within a predetermined period oftime, channel quality between the transmit beam and the user equipment.

Preferably, the selecting G groups of transmit beams includes:determining all groups of transmit beams according to the C sets oftransmit beams of the network side device, determining average channelquality of each group of transmit beams according to channel qualitybetween the N transmit beams included in each group of transmit beamsand the user equipment; and selecting the G groups of transmit beamsaccording to the average channel quality of each group of transmitbeams.

Preferably, the information about the selected G groups of transmitbeams includes: identification information of the N transmit beamsincluded in each of the G groups of transmit beams.

Preferably, identification information of each transmit beam includes:identification information of a set of transmit beams where the transmitbeam lies, and identification information of the transmit beam in theset of transmit beams.

Preferably, the information about the selected G groups of transmitbeams further includes: channel quality information of all or part ofthe G groups of transmit beams.

Preferably, the channel quality information of the group of transmitbeams includes: channel quality of each of the N transmit beams includedin the group of transmit beams; or average channel quality of the groupof transmit beams.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes:representing the channel quality by one or more of: Reference SignalReceiving Power RSRP, Reference Signal Receiving Quality RSRQ, andSignal to Interference plus Noise Ratio SINR.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes:receiving control information from the network side device; anddetermining, according to the control information, a group of transmitbeams for transmitting downlink information selected by the network sidedevice.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes:receiving the control information by Downlink Control Information DCI;and determining, according to the control information, a group oftransmit beams for transmitting downlink data information selected bythe network side device.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes:receiving the control information via Medium Access Control MAC layersignaling; and determining, according to the control information, agroup of transmit beams for transmitting downlink control informationselected by the network side device.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes: carryingthe information about the selected G groups of transmit beams by using aChannel State Information CSI report.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a subjectperforming the above method may be the user equipment 100 according tothe embodiment of the present disclosure. Therefore, all embodiments ofthe user equipment 100 described above are applicable here.

A wireless communication method performed by the electronic device 500serving as a network side device in a wireless communication systemaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure is described indetail below.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the wireless communication method performed bythe electronic device 500 serving as a network side device in a wirelesscommunication system according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

As shown in FIG. 7, in step S710, information about G groups of transmitbeams is received from a user equipment.

Next, in step S720, a group of transmit beams for transmitting downlinkinformation is selected from the G groups of transmit beams.

Each of the G groups of transmit beams includes N transmit beams. Theuser equipment is capable of simultaneously receiving downlinkinformation transmitted by the electronic device using the N transmitbeams. Each of N and G is an integer greater than 1.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes:determining, according to the information about the G groups of transmitbeams, identification information of the N transmit beams included ineach of the G groups of transmit beams.

Preferably, identification information of each transmit beam includes:identification information of a set of transmit beams where the transmitbeam lies, and identification information of the transmit beam in theset of transmit beams.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes:determining, according to the information about the G groups of transmitbeams, channel quality information of all or part of the G groups oftransmit beams.

Preferably, channel quality information of a group of transmit beamsincludes: channel quality of each of the N transmit beams included inthe group of transmit beams; or average channel quality of the group oftransmit beams.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes:transmitting control information to the user equipment. The controlinformation includes information about a selected group of transmitbeams for transmitting downlink information.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes:transmitting the control information by Downlink Control InformationDCI. The control information includes information about a selected groupof transmit beams for transmitting downlink data information.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes:transmitting the control information by Medium Access Control MAC layersignaling. The control information includes information about a selectedgroup of transmit beams for transmitting downlink control information.

Preferably, the wireless communication method further includes:receiving a Channel State Information CSI report from the user equipmentto acquire the information about the G groups of transmit beams.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a subjectperforming the above method may be the electronic device 500 accordingto the embodiment of the present disclosure. Therefore, all embodimentsof the electronic device 500 described above are applicable here.

The technology of the present disclosure is applicable to variousproducts.

The network side device may be implemented as any type of TRP. The TRPmay have functions of transmitting and receiving. For example, the TRPmay receive information from a user equipment and a base station device,and may transmit information to a user equipment and a base stationdevice. In a typical example, the TRP may serve a user equipment and iscontrolled by a base station device. Further, TRP may have a structuresimilar to that of a base station device described below or only have astructure related to information transmitting and receiving in the basestation device.

The network side device may also be implemented as any type of basestation device, such as a macro eNB and a small eNB. The network sidedevice may also be implemented as any type of gNB (a base station in a5G system). The small eNB may be an eNB covering a cell smaller than amacro cell, such as a pico eNB, a micro eNB and a home (femto) eNB.Alternatively, the base station may be implemented as any other types ofbase station, such as a NodeB and a base transceiver station (BTS). Thebase station may include: a main body (also referred to as a basestation device) configured to control wireless communication and one ormore remote radio heads (RRH) arranged at different positions from themain body.

The user equipment may be implemented as a mobile terminal (such as asmartphone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portablegame terminal, a portable/dongle mobile router, and a digital camera) ora vehicle terminal (such as a vehicle navigation device). The userequipment may also be implemented as a terminal (also referred to as amachine type communication (MTC) terminal) that performsmachine-to-machine (M2M) communication. Furthermore, the user equipmentmay be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuitmodule including a single wafer) mounted on each of the user equipmentsdescribed above.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a first example of an exemplaryconfiguration of a gNB to which the technology of the present disclosuremay be applied. A gNB 800 includes one or more antennas 810 and a basestation device 820. Each of the antennas 810 is connected to the basestation device 820 via an RF cable.

Each of the antennas 810 includes a single antenna element or multipleantenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in amultiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna), and is used for the basestation device 820 to transmit and receive a wireless signal. As shownin FIG. 8, the gNB 800 may include multiple antennas 810. For example,the multiple antennas 810 may be compatible with multiple frequencybands used by the gNB 800. Although FIG. 8 shows an example in which thegNB 800 includes multiple antennas 810, the gNB 800 may also include asingle antenna 810.

The base station device 820 includes a controller 821, a memory 822, anetwork interface 823 and a wireless communication interface 825.

The controller 821 may be, for example, a CPU or a DSP, and operatevarious functions of a high layer of the base station device 820. Forexample, the controller 821 generates a data packet based on data in asignal processed by the wireless communication interface 825 andtransmits the generated packet via the network interface 823. Thecontroller 821 may bundle data from multiple baseband processors togenerate a bundled packet and transmit the generated bundled packet. Thecontroller 821 may have a logic function that performs control such aswireless resource control, wireless bearer control, mobility management,admission control, and scheduling. The control may be performed incombination with a nearby gNB or core network node. The memory 822includes an RAM and an ROM, and stores a program executed by thecontroller 821 and various types of control data (such as a terminallist, transmission power data and scheduling data).

The network interface 823 is a communication interface via which thebase station device 820 is connected to a core network 824. Thecontroller 821 may communicate with a core network node or another gNBvia the network interface 823. In this case, the gNB 800 may beconnected to the core network node or another gNB via a logicalinterface (such as an interface S1 and an interface X2). The networkinterface 823 may also be a wired communication interface or a wirelesscommunication interface for wireless backhaul line. If the networkinterface 823 is a wireless communication interface, the networkinterface 823 may use a frequency band for wireless communication higherthan a frequency band used by the wireless communication interface 1825.

The wireless communication interface 825 supports any cellularcommunication scheme (such as long term evolution (LTE), LTE-Advancedand NR (new radio)), and provides wireless connection to a terminal in acell of the gNB 800 via an antenna 810. The wireless communicationinterface 825 may generally include, for example, a baseband (BB)processor 826 and a RF circuit 827. The BB processor 826 may perform,for example, encoding/decoding, modulating/demodulating andmultiplexing/de-multiplexing, and various types of signal processing oflayers (such as L1, medium access control (MAC), radio link control(RLC) and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP)). Instead of thecontroller 821, the BB processor 826 may have a part or all of the abovelogic functions. The BB processor 826 may be implemented as a memorystoring a communication control program, or a module including aprocessor configured to execute a program and related circuit. Thefunction of the BB processor 826 may be changed by updating the program.The module may be a card or blade inserted into a slot of the basestation device 820. Alternatively, the module may be a chip mounted onthe card or blade. Further, the RF circuit 827 may include, for example,a mixer, a filter or an amplifier, and transmits and receives a wirelesssignal via the antenna 810.

As shown in FIG. 8, the wireless communication interface 825 may includemultiple BB processors 826. For example, the multiple BB processors 826may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the gNB 800. Asshown in FIG. 8, the wireless communication interface 825 may includemultiple RF circuits 827. For example, the multiple RF circuits 827 maybe compatible with multiple antenna elements. Although FIG. 8 shows anexample in which the wireless communication interface 825 includesmultiple BB processors 826 and multiple RF circuits 827, the wirelesscommunication interface 825 may also include a single BB processor 826or a single RF circuit 827.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a second example of an exemplaryconfiguration of a gNB to which the technology of the present disclosuremay be applied. A gNB 930 includes one or more antennas 940, a basestation device 950, and an RRH 960. Each antenna 940 may be connected tothe RRH 960 via an RF cable. The base station device 950 may beconnected to the RRH 960 via a high speed line such as an optical fibercable.

Each of the antennas 940 includes a single antenna element or multipleantenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in an MIMOantenna), and is used for the RRH 960 to transmit and receive a wirelesssignal. As shown in FIG. 9, the gNB 930 may include multiple antennas940. For example, the multiple antennas 940 may be compatible withmultiple frequency bands used by the gNB 930. Although FIG. 9 shows anexample in which the gNB 930 includes multiple antennas 1940, the gNB930 may also include a single antenna 940.

The base station device 950 includes a controller 951, a memory 952, anetwork interface 953, a wireless communication interface 955, and aconnection interface 957. The controller 951, the memory 952, and thenetwork interface 953 are respectively the same as the controller 821,the memory 822, and the network interface 823 described with referenceto FIG. 8.

The wireless communication interface 955 supports any cellularcommunication scheme (such as LTE, LTE-Advanced and NR), and provideswireless communication to a terminal in a sector corresponding to theRRH 960 via the RRH 960 and the antenna 940. The wireless communicationinterface 955 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 956.The BB processor 956 is the same as the BB processor 826 described withreference to FIG. 8, except that the BB processor 956 is connected to anRF circuit 964 of the RRH 960 via the connection interface 957. As shownin FIG. 9, the wireless communication interface 955 may include multipleBB processors 956. For example, the multiple BB processors 956 may becompatible with multiple frequency bands used by the gNB 930. AlthoughFIG. 9 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface955 includes multiple BB processors 956, the wireless communicationinterface 955 may also include a single BB processor 956.

The connection interface 957 is an interface for connecting the basestation device 950 (the wireless communication interface 955) to the RRH960. The connection interface 957 may also be a communication module forcommunication in the above high speed line via which the base stationdevice 950 (wireless communication interface 955) is connected to theRRH 960.

The RRH 960 includes a connection interface 961 and a wirelesscommunication interface 963.

The connection interface 961 is an interface for connecting the RRH 960(the wireless communication interface 963) to the base station device950. The connection interface 961 may also be a communication module forcommunication in the above high speed line.

The wireless communication interface 963 transmits and receives awireless signal via the antenna 940. The wireless communicationinterface 963 may generally include, for example, an RF circuit 964. TheRF circuit 964 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and anamplifier, and transmits and receives a wireless signal via the antenna940. As shown in FIG. 9, the wireless communication interface 963 mayinclude multiple RF circuits 964. For example, the multiple RF circuits964 may support multiple antenna elements. Although FIG. 9 shows anexample in which the wireless communication interface 963 includesmultiple RF circuits 964, the wireless communication interface 963 mayinclude a single RF circuit 964.

In the gNB 800 shown in FIG. 8 and the gNB 930 shown in FIG. 9, theselection unit 510, the demodulation unit 530, and the configurationunit 540 shown in FIG. 5 may be implemented by the controller 821 and/orthe controller 851. At least a part of functions may also be implementedby the controller 821 and the controller 851. For example, thecontroller 821 and/or the controller 851 may perform the functions ofselecting a group of transmit beams for transmitting downlinkinformation, demodulating information about G groups of transmit beamsand configuring control information by executing instructions stored ina corresponding memory.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an example of an exemplaryconfiguration of a smartphone 1000 to which technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied. The smartphone 1000 includes a processor1001, a memory 1002, a storage device 1003, an external connectioninterface 1004, a camera 1006, a sensor 1007, a microphone 1008, aninput device 1009, a display device 1010, a loudspeaker 1011, a wirelesscommunication interface 1012, one or more antenna switches 1015, one ormore antennas 1016, a bus 1017, a battery 1018 and an auxiliarycontroller 1019.

The processor 1001 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on chip (SoC),and controls functions of an application layer and another layer of thesmartphone 1000. The memory 1002 includes an RAM and an ROM, and storesa program executed by the processor 1001 and data. The storage device1003 may include a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory and ahard disk. The external connection interface 1004 is an interface forconnecting an external device (such as a memory card and a universalserial bus (USB) device) to the smartphone 1000.

The camera 1006 includes an image sensor (such as a charge coupleddevice (CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)), andgenerates a captured image. The sensor 1007 may include a group ofsensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagneticsensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 1008 converts soundthat is inputted to the smartphone 1000 into an audio signal. The inputdevice 1009 includes, for example, a touch sensor configured to detect atouch on a screen of the display device 1010, a keypad, a keyboard, abutton, or a switch, and receives an operation or information inputtedby a user. The display device 1010 includes a screen (such as a liquidcrystal display (LCD) and an organic light-emitting diode (OLED)display), and displays an output image of the smartphone 1000. Theloudspeaker 1011 is configured to convert an audio signal outputted fromthe smartphone 1000 into sound.

The wireless communication interface 1012 supports any cellularcommunication scheme (such as LTE, LTE-Advanced and NR), and performswireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1012 maygenerally include, for example, a BB processor 1013 and an RF circuit1014. The BB processor 1013 may perform, for example, coding/decoding,modulating/demodulating and multiplexing/de-multiplexing, and varioussignal processing for wireless communication. The RF circuit 1014 mayinclude, for example, a mixer, a filter and an amplifier, and transmitsand receives a wireless signal via an antenna 1016. The wirelesscommunication interface 1012 may be a chip module having the BBprocessor 1013 and the RF circuit 1014 integrated thereon. As shown inFIG. 10, the wireless communication interface 1012 may include multipleBB processors 1013 and multiple RF circuits 1014. Although FIG. 10 showsan example in which the wireless communication interface 1012 includesthe multiple BB processors 1013 and the multiple RF circuits 1014, thewireless communication interface 1012 may also include a single BBprocessor 1013 or a single RF circuit 1014.

Besides the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communicationinterface 1012 may support other type of wireless communication scheme,such as a short-distance wireless communication scheme, a near fieldcommunication scheme and a wireless local area network (LAN) scheme. Inthis case, the wireless communication interface 1012 may include the BBprocessor 1013 and the RF circuit 1014 for each wireless communicationscheme.

Each of the antenna switches 1015 switches a connection destination ofthe antenna 1016 among multiple circuits (such as circuits for differentwireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communicationinterface 1012.

Each of the antennas 1016 includes a single antenna element or multipleantenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in an MIMOantenna), and is used for the wireless communication interface 1012 totransmit and receive a wireless signal. As shown in FIG. 10, thesmartphone 1000 may include multiple antennas 1016. Although FIG. 10shows an example in which the smartphone 1000 includes multiple antennas1016, the smartphone 1000 may also include a single antenna 1016.

In addition, the smartphone 1000 may include an antenna 1016 for eachtype of wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antennaswitches 1015 may be omitted in the configuration of the smartphone1000.

The processor 1001, the memory 1002, the storage device 1003, theexternal connection interface 1004, the camera 1006, the sensor 1007,the microphone 1008, the input device 1009, the display device 1010, theloudspeaker 1011, the wireless communication interface 1012, and theauxiliary controller 1019 are connected to each other via the bus 1017.The battery 1018 supplies power to blocks of the smartphone 1000 shownin FIG. 10 via feeders that are partially shown with dashed lines in thedrawings. The auxiliary controller 1019, for example, operates a minimumnecessary function of the smartphone 1000 in a sleep mode.

In the smartphone 1000 shown in FIG. 10, the selection unit 110, theconfiguration unit 120, the detection unit 140 and the determinationunit 150 shown in FIG. 1 may be implemented by the processor 1001 or theauxiliary controller 1019. At least a part of functions may also beimplemented by the processor 1001 or the auxiliary controller 1019. Forexample, the processor 1001 or the auxiliary controller 1019 may performthe functions of: selecting G groups of transmit beams, configuringinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams, detectingchannel quality, and determining a group of transmit beams selected by anetwork side device by executing instructions stored in the memory 1002or the storage device 1003.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an example of an exemplaryconfiguration of a vehicle navigation device 1120 to which thetechnology of the present disclosure may be applied. The vehiclenavigation device 1120 includes a processor 1121, a memory 1122, aglobal positioning system (GPS) module 1124, a sensor 1125, a datainterface 1126, a content player 1127, a storage medium interface 1128,an input device 1129, a display device 1130, a loudspeaker 1131, awireless communication interface 1133, one or more antenna switches1136, one or more antennas 1137, and a battery 1138.

The processor 1121 may be, for example, a CPU or SoC, and controls anavigation function and another function of the vehicle navigationdevice 1120. The memory 1122 includes an RAM and an ROM, and stores aprogram executed by the processor 1121 and data.

The GPS module 1124 uses a GPS signal received from a GPS satellite tomeasure a position (such as a latitude, a longitude, and an altitude) ofthe vehicle navigation device 1120. The sensor 1125 may include a groupof sensors such as a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an airpressure sensor. The data interface 1126 is connected to, for example, avehicle network 1141 via a terminal that is not shown, and acquires data(such as vehicle speed data) generated by the vehicle.

The content player 1127 reproduces content stored in a storage medium(such as a CD and a DVD) that is inserted into the storage mediuminterface 1128. The input device 1129 includes, for example, a touchsensor configured to detect a touch on a screen of the display device1130, a button, or a switch, and receives an operation or informationinputted by a user. The display device 1130 includes a screen such as aLCD or an OLED display, and displays an image of the navigation functionor reproduced content. The loudspeaker 1131 outputs sound of thenavigation function or the reproduced content.

The wireless communication interface 1133 supports any cellularcommunication scheme (such as LTE, LTE-Advanced and NR), and performswireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1133 maygenerally include, for example, a BB processor 1134 and an RF circuit1135. The BB processor 1134 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding,modulating/demodulating, and multiplexing/de-multiplexing, and varioussignal processing for wireless communication. In addition, the RFcircuit 1135 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and anamplifier, and transmits and receives a wireless signal via the antenna1137. The wireless communication interface 1133 may also be a chipmodule having the BB processor 1134 and the RF circuit 1135 integratedthereon. As shown in FIG. 11, the wireless communication interface 1133may include multiple BB processors 1134 and multiple RF circuits 1135.Although FIG. 11 shows an example in which the wireless communicationinterface 1133 includes the multiple BB processors 1134 and the multipleRF circuits 1135, the wireless communication interface 1133 may alsoinclude a single BB processor 1134 or a single RF circuit 1135.

In addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wirelesscommunication interface 1133 may support another type of wirelesscommunication scheme such as a short-distance wireless communicationscheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wireless LAN scheme. Inthis case, the wireless communication interface 1133 may include the BBprocessor 1134 and the RF circuit 1135 for each wireless communicationscheme.

Each of the antenna switches 1136 switches a connection destination ofthe antenna 1137 among multiple circuits (such as circuits for differentwireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communicationinterface 1133.

Each of the antennas 1137 includes a single antenna element or multipleantenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in an MIMOantenna), and is used for the wireless communication interface 1133 totransmit and receive a wireless signal. As shown in FIG. 11, the vehiclenavigation device 1120 may include multiple antennas 1137. Although FIG.11 shows an example in which the vehicle navigation device 1120 includesthe multiple antennas 1137, the vehicle navigation device 1120 may alsoinclude a single antenna 1137.

Furthermore, the vehicle navigation device 1120 may include an antenna1137 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antennaswitches 1136 may be omitted in the configuration of the vehiclenavigation device 1120.

The battery 1138 supplies power to blocks of the vehicle navigationdevice 1120 shown in FIG. 11 via feeders that are partially shown asdashed lines in FIG. 11. The battery 1138 accumulates power suppliedfrom the vehicle.

In the vehicle navigation device 1120 shown in FIG. 11, the selectionunit 110, the configuration unit 120, the detection unit 140 and thedetermination unit 150 shown in FIG. 1 may be implemented by theprocessor 1121. At least a part of functions may also be implemented bythe processor 1121. For example, the processor 1121 may perform thefunctions of: selecting G groups of transmit beams, configuringinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams, detectingchannel quality, and determining a group of transmit beams selected by anetwork side device by executing instructions stored in the memory 1122.

The technology of the present disclosure may also be implemented as avehicle system (or a vehicle) 1140 including one or more blocks in thevehicle navigation device 1120, the vehicle network 1141, and a vehiclemodule 1142. The vehicle module 1142 generates vehicle data (such as avehicle speed, an engine speed and fault information), and outputs thegenerated data to the vehicle network 1141.

Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are described above withreference to the drawings. However, the present disclosure is notlimited to the above examples. Those skilled in the art may obtainvarious modifications and changes within the scope of the appendedclaims. It should be understood that these modifications and changesfall within the technical scope of the present disclosure.

For example, a unit shown by a dashed-line block in functional blockdiagrams shown in the drawings is optional in a corresponding apparatus.Further, optional functional units may be combined in a suitable mannerto achieve required functions.

For example, in the above embodiments, multiple functions included inone unit may be achieved by separate apparatuses. Alternately, in theabove embodiments, multiple functions achieved by multiple units may berespectively achieved by separate apparatuses. In addition, one of theabove functions may be achieved by multiple units. These configurationsshould be included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

In this specification, the steps described in the flowcharts include notonly processing performed in time series in the described order but alsoprocessing performed in parallel or individually instead of in timeseries. In addition, the steps performed in time series may be performedin a different order.

Although the embodiments of the present disclosure are described abovein conjunction with the drawings, it should be understood that thedescribed embodiments are only used to illustrate the present disclosurebut not limit the present disclosure. For those skilled in the art,various changes and modifications may be made to the embodiments withoutdeparting from the essence and scope of the present disclosure.Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure is defined only byappended claims and equivalent meaning thereof.

1. A user equipment, comprising processing circuitry configured to:select G groups of transmit beams from K transmit beams of a networkside device; and transmit information about the selected G groups oftransmit beams to the network side device, wherein each of the G groupsof transmit beams comprises N transmit beams, and the user equipment iscapable of simultaneously receiving downlink information transmitted bythe network side device using the N transmit beams, and wherein each ofK, N and G is an integer greater than
 1. 2. The user equipment accordingto claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:select the G groups of transmit beams according to C sets of transmitbeams of the network side device so that each group of transmit beamscomprises N transmit beams which are respectively from N sets oftransmit beams, wherein C is an integer greater than or equal to N. 3.The user equipment according to claim 2, wherein each of the C sets oftransmit beams comprises all transmit beams emitted by one or moreantenna panels of the network side device.
 4. The user equipmentaccording to claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is furtherconfigured to: select the G groups of transmit beams according tochannel quality between the K transmit beams of the network side deviceand the user equipment.
 5. The user equipment according to claim 4,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine,according to a mean value of channel quality between each transmit beamand the user equipment within a predetermined period of time, channelquality between the transmit beam and the user equipment.
 6. The userequipment according to claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to: determine all groups of transmit beams accordingto the C sets of transmit beams of the network side device; determineaverage channel quality of each group of transmit beams according tochannel quality between the N transmit beams comprised in each group oftransmit beams and the user equipment; and select the G groups oftransmit beams according to the average channel quality of each group oftransmit beams.
 7. The user equipment according to claim 2, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to: make the informationabout the selected G groups of transmit beams comprise: identificationinformation of the N transmit beams comprised in each of the G groups oftransmit beams.
 8. The user equipment according to claim 7, whereinidentification information of each transmit beam comprises:identification information of a set of transmit beams where the transmitbeam lies, and identification information of the transmit beam in theset of transmit beams.
 9. The user equipment according to claim 7,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: make theinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams furthercomprise: channel quality information of all or part of the G groups oftransmit beams.
 10. The user equipment according to claim 9, whereinchannel quality information of a group of transmit beams comprises:channel quality of each of the N transmit beams comprised in the groupof transmit beams; or average channel quality of the group of transmitbeams.
 11. (canceled)
 12. The user equipment according to claim 1,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: carry theinformation about the selected G groups of transmit beams by using oneChannel State Information CSI report.
 13. The user equipment accordingto claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:receive control information from the network side device; and determine,according to the control information, a group of transmit beams fortransmitting downlink information selected by the network side device.14.-15. (canceled)
 16. An electronic device, comprising processingcircuitry configured to: receive information about G groups of transmitbeams from a user equipment; and select a group of transmit beams fortransmitting downlink information from the G groups of transmit beams,wherein each of the G groups of transmit beams comprises N transmitbeams, and the user equipment is capable of simultaneously receivingdownlink information transmitted by the electronic device using the Ntransmit beams, and wherein each of N and G is an integer greaterthan
 1. 17. The electronic device according to claim 16, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to: determine, according tothe information about the G groups of transmit beams, identificationinformation of the N transmit beams comprised in each of the G groups oftransmit beams.
 18. The electronic device according to claim 17, whereinidentification information of each transmit beam comprises:identification information of a set of transmit beams where the transmitbeam lies, and identification information of the transmit beam in theset of transmit beams.
 19. The electronic device according to claim 17,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine,according to the information about the G groups of transmit beams,channel quality information of all or part of the G groups of transmitbeams.
 20. The electronic device according to claim 19, wherein channelquality information of a group of transmit beams comprises: channelquality of each of the N transmit beams comprised in the group oftransmit beams; or average channel quality of the group of transmitbeams.
 21. The electronic device according to claim 16, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to: transmit controlinformation to the user equipment, wherein the control informationcomprises information about a selected group of transmit beams fortransmitting downlink information. 22.-23. (canceled)
 24. The electronicdevice according to claim 16, wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to: receive one Channel State Information CSI reportfrom the user equipment to acquire the information about the G groups oftransmit beams.
 25. A wireless communication method performed by a userequipment, comprising: selecting G groups of transmit beams from Ktransmit beams of a network side device; and transmitting informationabout the selected G groups of transmit beams to the network sidedevice, wherein each of the G groups of transmit beams comprises Ntransmit beams, and the user equipment is capable of simultaneouslyreceiving downlink information transmitted by the network side deviceusing the N transmit beams, and wherein each of K, N and G is an integergreater than
 1. 26.-49. (canceled)